Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Education Boondoggle

The Education Boondoggle

“Teenagers have been warned they are becoming unemployable because they use a vocabulary of just 800 words…. The majority of teenagers should have developed a broad vocabulary of 40,000 words by the time they reach 16.”Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242056/Teenspeak-youngsters-unemployable-limited-vocabulary.html#

Most western nations’ deliberately implemented government funded education programs to guarantee that our kids would never acquire essential skills for economic success or promote lifelong learning or even the most basic of communication skills for social and business interaction.Government views children as nothing more than a herd of cattle than can be controlled and manipulated for the benefit of the plantation owners.

The American public education system has degenerated to the point where it is nothing more than a propaganda machine for statism and totalitarianism.Besides guaranteeing that our kids are chronically dumbed down zombies incapable of behaving like anything more than a herd of brainless cattle, the evils inflicted upon a nation that made the conscious decision to sacrifice its kids on the altar of “government is god” is so morally reprehensible that it constitutes the worst forms of human depravity.

Ever since the federal Department of Education was created by Jimmy Carter in 1979, the quality of education in America has been spiraling downward.Curriculumsfocus on bolstering self esteem, communitarian ideology, rain forest math, social justice, victimology, revisionist history and just about everything else that avoids math, science, literature, biology and all the core subjects that once gave a high school graduate more than adequate skills to function in the workforce and/or enter college.

But these days, America is no longer the great place to build a plant and hire workers and engineers.A few years ago, Toyota caught some headlines because it made the decision to build a new plant in Canada despite several U.S. states offering huge incentives.The reason?Canadians with a high school diploma are far better educated and far more literate than Americans.Apparently, training factory workers in America was a Herculean task requiring pictorials because folks simply could not read training manuals.

Although the government is fully committed to dumbing down Americans of all races, nowhere is the disaster more heavily and painfully pronounced than in African American and Hispanic communities.The dropout rates are horrific according to CNN:

Researchers for the study analyzed the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Surveys, household data from the Current Population Survey, national data on GED certificate awards and other official sources to examine the problem at the national level and in the nation's 12 largest states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

Men and blacks and Hispanics of both genders are among those particularly prone to dropping out of high school.

"As these data show, this dropout crisis is disproportionately affecting America's communities of color," said Marc Morial, president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. "Youth from all communities deserve an equal chance at educational success."

Among the findings in the report, "Left Behind in America: The Nation's Dropout Crisis:"

Nearly one in five U.S. men between the ages of 16 and 24 (18.9 percent) were dropouts in 2007.

Nearly three of 10 Latinos, including recent immigrants, were dropouts (27.5 percent).

More than one in five blacks dropped out of school (21 percent). The dropout rate for whites was 12.2 percent.

The education statistics on African American and Hispanics are appalling and if anybody has had an up close and personal glimpse into the education system, the American decline in education is no longer a mystery.Because our schools are nothing more than statist indoctrination factories the results are entirely predictable.Still, Caucasians and Asians perform much better than African Americans and Hispanics, even in the worst of the schools and that’s largely attributable to the fact their families are more intact and stable.

The colossal failures of the U.S. education system are frequently analyzed by an assortment of think tanks, media folks and anybody else who wants to chirp in with a well reasoned, articulate and well thought out opinions.

John McWhorter, an African American, a Berkeley linguistics professor and author of Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America has extensively addressed the agonizing issue of the failure of African Americans to succeed and the total lack of measurable progress.McWhorter inflamed many when he concluded that the failures of African Americans are directly attributable to its culture of rap and disdain for education.Education is apparently considered a white man’s endeavor that African Americans should avoid at all costs.

Larry Elders, an African American Libertarian radio talk show host and attorney has written several best sellers that discuss a variety of race related issues.His book Showdown “demonstrates how the nation would be better, stronger and safer with less government intervention and how individuals would not only cope but thrive without the so-called social safety net.”

Elders makes an excellent point because building a culture of dependency absolutely creates a totalitarian state wherein “Big Brother” can only operate with legitimacy by forcefully zapping people of their ability to think, to reason, to produce, to flourish, to succeedand to have a boundless intellectual curiosity.A nation of independent free thinkers poses the greatest threats to the state, its operatives and its liberty crushing powers.But despite the best efforts of government to indoctrinate its citizens into accepting perpetual serfdom, there still beats a weak but alive antidote within the human condition because throughout history humans have longed to be free of shackles.

In the modern world, shackles are far more subtle than the historically visible shackles of ruthless brute force like Stalinist gulags and the slave trade.These days, totalitarians of all stripes have discovered that brute force isn’t necessary, yet, because validating the voluntary submission of the multitudes to the ruling elites only requires control of the education system and democracy.Dumbed down citizens are far too intellectually incapacitated to pay any attention to how their congress critters vote.Nor are they capable of even analyzing issues.

American kids continue to fall behind other first world nations and even third world nations when it comes to education.

Fifteen-year-old students from the United States rank 25th out of 30 advanced nations in math and 24th in science, according to The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The glaring failures of the education system significantly impacts our economy and vastly contributes to the reduced ability of Americans to be entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, doctors, inventors and high achieversetc.The impact on our future will be devastating.

The education mafia that rules the failed U.S. education system with an iron fist is also a world class terrorist organization.Even Rod Paige, a Bush 43 appointed Education Secretary, agrees; he bluntly called the National Education Association (NEA) a “terrorist organization” and Paige is African America.Meanwhile, the educrats continue to demand more and more money to pour down the education rat hole and they manage to always avoid accountability for the gargantuan sums of money they extort from taxpayers.Despite spending more on education than any nation on earth, we have nothing to show for it and the results continue to decline at an alarming rate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, teachers in America are the highest paid teachers in the world and the average public school teacher earns on average $34.06 per hour.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker.

In the popular imagination, however, public school teachers are underpaid. "Salaries are too low. We all know that," noted First Lady Laura Bush, expressing the consensus view. "We need to figure out a way to pay teachers more." Indeed, our efforts to hire more teachers and raise their salaries account for the bulk of public school spending increases over the last four decades. During that time per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, has more than doubled; overall we now annually spend more than $500 billion on public education…

It would also be beneficial if the debate touched on the correlation between teacher pay and actual results. To wit, higher teacher pay seems to have no effect on raising student achievement. Metropolitan areas with higher teacher pay do not graduate a higher percentage of their students than areas with lower teacher pay.

In fact, the urban areas with the highest teacher pay are famous for their abysmal outcomes. Metro Detroit leads the nation, paying its public school teachers, on average, $47.28 per hour. That's 61% more than the average white-collar worker in the Detroit area and 36% more than the average professional worker. In metro New York, public school teachers make $45.79 per hour, 20% more than the average professional worker in that area. And in Los Angeles teachers earn $44.03 per hour, 23% higher than other professionals in the area.

Ednews.org is an organization devoted to education issues and it produced a startling report titled “Special investigation: How a generation of illiterate, feral youths who idolize drug dealers and rappers live lawlessly outside civilized society”.Although the study focused on youths in Britain, it could easily have focused on American youth and the results would have been the same.

Our miserable education failures extend into higher education as well.A Washington Post article states “Literacy experts and educators say they are stunned by the results of a recent adult literacy assessment, which shows that the reading proficiency of college graduates has declined in the past decade, with no obvious explanation”.

"It's appalling -- it's really astounding," said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. "Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it”. That's not saying much for the remainder.

Dolores Perin, a reading expert at Columbia University Teachers College, said that her work has indicated that the issue may start at the high school level. "There is a tremendous literacy problem among high school graduates that is not talked about," said Perin.."

James Quinn, a financial analyst and social commentator wrote an amazing piece in Financialsense.com and his analysis of the U.S. education disaster is totally laid out in an article that prints out to 13 pages that’s packed with data and keen observations.It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about American education and how it is a recipe for the proliferation of poverty.Quinn’s anger and disgust are clearly apparent:

According to the CDC, 66% of adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese. That is approximately 140 million adults. Somewhere between 15 and 20 million Americans can be classified as alcoholics. As many as 50% of those on welfare are alcoholics. There are 225 million people over 18 years old and 32 million of them do not have a high school degree. There are 32 million adults or 14% who are illiterate (23% in California, 22% in New York, 20% in Florida, 17% in New Jersey). The United States’ spending per pupil in public schools at $9,266 is in the top 5 in the world. New York and New Jersey spend $14,000 per pupil and one-fifth of their adults are illiterate.

Forrest Gump, when asked “Are you stupid or something”, responded “Stupid is as stupid does”.

Educational attainment is the single biggest determinant of lifetime income. As of 2008, 14% of Americans over 18 years old haven’t graduated high school, 31% have achieved a high school degree, 27% have earned a bachelor’s degree, and only 9% have earned an advanced degree. The median household income in the U.S. is $46,326. The median household income of Asian households is 24% higher at $57,518. The median household income of Black households is 35% lower at $30,134. Asian households have a fantastic educational achievement, with 49% of Asians achieving a bachelor’s degree or higher. Black households have a higher percentage with no high school degree (18%) than they do with a bachelor’s degree or higher (17%). Hispanic households have even more dreadful levels of educational attainment with only 12% achieving a bachelor’s degree or higher, while a full 37% of Hispanics have not graduated high school. Even though 69 million Americans have attained a high school degree, many are functionally illiterate as our public school system has just matriculated them through the system.

The dumbing down of America has allowed the intelligentsia to retain power and increase their control over the country. Lack of educational achievement doesn’t automatically mean you are easily manipulated, but it sure increases the odds. If you weren’t motivated enough to do well in school, you are unlikely to take your civic duties of voting, understanding national issues, and getting involved in your community seriously. The saddest part is that an enormous quantity of even the college educated is so intellectually lazy that they choose to trust their leaders without question. With 100 million, ignorant, non-thinking, non-questioning, and intellectually lazy zombies occupying space in this country, continued domination by a few thousand highly educated elite remains quite easy. A highly educated citizenry would endanger their power. By socializing public education, encouraging mediocrity, and not rewarding excellence, government bureaucrats insure that the masses remain ignorant and pliable. Those in power know that by keeping the ignorant masses sedated with socialist goodies like welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, and easy credit, they can stay in charge. For them it is fabulous, for the country it is a disaster. Winston Churchill summed it up succinctly:

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

Quinn’s conclusions are dead on accurate.America was once a nation that bred the best and the brightest in everything.Now we have become just another global cesspool of miserable mediocrity.

Much of our education decline is directly attributable to the Federal Department of Education, a tax dollar guzzling organization staffed with arrogant and overpaid bureaucrats fully dedicated to the dumbing down of America.The DOE must be abolished because it’s an albatross that is choking us to death by defining education as social justice indoctrination sprinkled with rain forest math.An acquaintance described his young child’s math education as “they tell the kids that Johnnie has 5 apples but Sallie only has 1 apple, is that fair?”.

Equally important as abolishing the Department of Education is breaking up the legal monopoly of the educrats by allowing a voucher system.Some European nations with highly successful education results use vouchers and this creates tremendous competition in education because parents who have choices will search for the best performing schools for their kids.In America, there are no choices except expensive private schools and home schooling.

John Stossel’s outstanding piece on education titled 'Stupid in America' is another not so shocking expose’ of our failed education system.Stossel directly attributes failed education to a lack of choice and a lack of educational competition.Education is an issue that is near and dear to Stossel’s heart and he covers it extensively.He interviewed a principal of an alternative charter school in Oakland, Ben Chavez.Chavez has had remarkable success with troubled students and spends far less money per pupil. Stossel writes “Since he took over four years ago, his school has gone from being among the worst in Oakland to being the best. His middle school has the highest test scores in the city.

"It's not about the money," he said.

He's confident that even kids who come from broken families and poor families will do well in his school. "Give me the poor kids, and I will outperform the wealthy kids who live in the hills. And we do it," he said. ”

The courageous and astute Mr. Chavez had a lot of experience in the public school system and his extensive knowledge highly qualifies him as an educator with real solutions to real problems.Even though Chavez spends less per pupil than public schools, his teachers earn more than public school teachers.

Until educators like Mr. Chavez are freed from the shackles of the NEA and DOE imposed standards of mediocrity for teachers and students, America is doomed.We cannot thrive as a nation that marginalizes and disavows inquisitive minds hungry for knowledge.Like any cesspool, it needs periodic cleansing and cleaning out the worthless bureaucratic parasites and teachers in the composting education cesspool should be a starting point.

Mr. Chavez in Oakland, CA isn’t the only extraordinary natural resource in America producing education miracles.In inner city Chicago, a man named Paul J. Adams has been operating a low cost private school called Providence St. Mel for 30 years.And for the last 30 years, 100% of its students have been accepted into college.Ronald Reagan raved about the school in the 1980’s and Oprah Winfrey gave the school $1 million gift.What is the cause of Mr. Adams’ remarkable success?

There's no magic formula to explain why the school is doing so well, Adams tells Scott Simon.

"I think we have very intelligent people teaching [the children]," he says. "We have people that understand our mission. Our mission is to send our children to college. We think those critical analytical skills need to be developed early."

But Adams says a key component of St. Mel's mission — "we believe in the creation of inspired lives" — takes plenty of work.

"You have to earn the right to dream," he says. "You have to pay your dues. That is something that sticks with our youngsters as they go off to college and are now adults. They talk about that mission statement. In times of need and when times are difficult, they can always go back to that mission statement."

Work Not Done

Adams says there's a positive energy at the school.

"We celebrate learning," he says. "We celebrate success. We have honors assemblies that resemble pep rallies, where children are applauding that you're on the honor roll."…

Extended school weeks make a difference, he says.

"I think one of the misnomers is that we have some kind of miracle going on. We spend more time teaching," Adams says. "We're in school six days a week. If I could figure out a way to raise enough money, I'd have it seven days a week. Students are in the building from 7 a.m., sometimes even earlier, to 5 and 6 and 7 o'clock at night."

Of course, the goons and thugs who run the public school system have nothing but utter contempt for Mr. Adams and Mr. Chavez and their highly successful teaching methods.Such models in education excellence will never be adopted by liberal bureaucrats who are addicted to crushing the potential of a child’s mind.It’s what government does best.

A nation of lobotomized idiots should be unacceptable for Americans and our children are cheated under the weight of a failed education system.But we’ve accepted it for so long that we scarcely have any memories left of what our education system once produced before the federal government and the educrats destroyed another one of America’s crowning achievements.